» This book changed my life

Weatherwax
This isn't influenced at all by his recent diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease, but I definitely owe a debt of gratitude to Terry Pratchett. Particularly Granny Weatherwax and the way that he seems to use her as a voice to talk about his own approach to life - I mean really, over the last few years I've been exposed to all kinds of corporate middle-management nonsense but you can keep all your Emotional Intelligences and Neuro-Linguistic Programmings if you could just teach people some of the lessons that Granny tries to get across to everyone around her.

The world is a cruel, random and horrible place. Our only hope for making it any better comes from each other. The right thing to do is often hard to spot and even harder to do; doing the wrong thing is almost always easier. Right or wrong, believing in your own judgement and carrying through on that is the best route for personal well-being.

I defy anyone to read the final show-down between Granny and the Elf-queen in Lords & Ladies and not think 'blimey, this one knows what's going on.'
(Thu 22nd May 2008, 0:35, More)